René Magritte ⎮ The Sixteenth of September ⎮ 11oz Mug

"If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream." - Rene Magritte

Charm and menace: these contradictory emotions suffuse Magritte’s art, in which the repressed is made visible. The Belgian painter sought to illuminate the secret life that inhabits the ordinary world, and in doing so, confronts the viewer’s unique conscience with all that preceded it. The unfamiliar reveals itself in Magritte’s cohabitation of contrasts, where experience is borrowed and the primitive innocence of the gaze renewed.

In his paintings, the joy and dread of ordinary existence coexist, endowing the canvas with the aura of the extraordinary. The effect on the viewer is as much a part of the art, stirring and revealing outlandish feelings within us, shedding light on one own’s secret truth.